Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of the Nottingham Journal readers and welcome to the first column of 2009!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have kicked off the New Year on the right foot and more importantly wrapped up warm during what has been a very chilly couple of weeks.

Christmas is always a funny time in professional sport, but I had a fantastic time during the festive period. The coaches at Nottingham are very cautious about the amount of training that we do, due to the fact that we have such a small squad, so despite training on Boxing day in preparation for our game against Esher on the 28th we had a fairly normal Christmas training regime and plenty of time to relax and recover from what is a relentless season in National Division One.

I do love Christmas and the traditional things that happen around this time of the year. The time spent with the family, the lovely British fayre that is served at every meal and of course the Darts World Championship.

It is amazing to watch a master at work and that is exactly how I spent last weekend, after the game against Sedgley Park had been cancelled due to the weather. The Power is a genius on the oche and a true legend of sport. I am always amazed by the accuracy of his darts and the way that he can dominate the opposition and apply so much pressure just by his presence.

We will need precision and accuracy in our play at Meadow Lane on Sunday against the Cornish Pirates, kick off 3pm, and I hope the presence of another good crowd will put them off their game.